Tanker installations



Nov. 21, 1961 A. CRICHTON TANKER INSTALLATIONS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 14, 1958 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,009,474 TANKER INSTALLATIONS Alexandre Crichton, Viroflay, France, assignor to S0- ciete Industrielle Generale de Mecanique Appliquee S.I.G.M.A., Paris, France, a society of France Filed July 14, 1958, Ser. No. 748,240 Claims priority, application France July 17, 1957 1 Claim. (Cl. 137344) The present invention relates to installations for the distribution of oils or other petroleum products on a tanker ship.

The object of this invention is to provide an installation of this type which is simpler, easier to operate and less expensive than those used up to the present time.

According to the present invention, a valve for the distribution of a petroleum product on the tanker is operated by hydraulic motor means fed with power liquid through a hydraulic circuit including control valve means interposed in said circuit between said hydraulic motor means and a source of power liquid under pressure, wherein an indicator mounted on said circuit works in response to the operation of said petroleum product distributing valve, whereby the operator can operate the petroleum product distributing valve by means of said power liquid control valve means and the operation of said distributing valve can be checked by means of said indicator.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings, given merely by way of example and in which:

FIG. 1 diagrammatically shows the lay-out of an installation according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows on an enlarged scale and in longitudinal section a valve position indicator device.

FIG. 3 shows a modification of said indicator device.

Up to the present time, the distributing valves existing in tankers were controlled through mechanical means, the operation of which was tiresome, expensive and somewhat unreliable.

The object of the present invention is to obviate these drawbacks.

For this purpose, use is made to control a distributing valve of the tanker installation, of hydraulic motor means controlled through suitable valve means, the hydraulic circuit of said motor means including an indicator, preferably located close to said control valve means and working in response to the operation of the petroleum product distributing valve.

For instance, as shown by FIG. 1, a petroleum product distributing valve 1 is operated, through a lever 6, by the rod 2 of a hydraulic jack 5 constituting, in this embodiment of the invention, the above mentioned hydraulic motor means.

The power liquid for operating jack 5 is supplied from a main conduit 3 from which start a plurality of feed conduits 4 4 4. conduit 4 leading to jack 5,,.

The power liquid comes from a liquid tank 7 (this liquid being preferably an oil having a low freezing point) in which is mounted a float 8 capable of controlling, through a system of levers and electric contacts 9 and 10, an alarm device operated when the level in tank 7 moves beyond given limits. This tank is further provided with a gauge 11 and a draining cock 12.

A double system of pumps and filters, each of these systems including a pump 13 capable of collecting liquid from tank 7 through a filter 1-4, is provided with valves 15 ganged together so as to bring into action either one or the other of these two systems (or possibly to place both of them out of action).

A check-valve 16 and a flow-rate meter 17 are mounted in the conduit which connects the output ends of pumps 3,009,474 Patented Nov. 21, 1961 13 with the main conduit 3. Preferably, there is mounted on this conduit a hydraulic accumulator 18 and a safety by-pass 19 through which the main circuit is connected with a discharge pipe 20 (leading back to tank 7) in case of accidental overpressure in said main circuit.

Each of the secondary circuits such as 4,, includes a manually operated valve means 21 having three positions for sending power liquid from 4, to one end or the other of jack 5 or for cutting off the communication between 4 and 5,. Advantageously, all these manual valve means are mounted on a common board 22.

Each of these secondary circuits include an indicator 23 advantageously located close to said valve means 21 and which works in accordance with the operation of hydraulic motor means S and therefore of valve 1, this indicator showing for example the position of the movable element of said jack 5 Indicator 23 is mounted on conduit 24 connected with one end of jack 5,, the other end of said jack being connected through conduit 26 with valve means 21. 'Said conduits 25 and 26 may be made of copper or any suitable plastic material.

Emergency valve means 25 may be interposed in said secondary circuits 24-26.

With such an arrangement, the oil under pressure fed to one of the faces of the piston of jack 5 (for instance to the left of said piston through conduit 26 when it is desired to close valve 1) moves said piston toward the right, thus causing rod 2 to project and to operate, through lever 6, the petroleum product distributing valve 1 moving toward its closing position. Oil driven back by the jack piston on the right hand side thereof is caused to flow through conduit 24 to valve means 21, said valve means placing said conduit 24 in communication with a return collector 27 connected with tank 7. Advantageously, this return collector 27 is connected through a check valve 30 with a recovery tank 28 through the intermediate of a pump 29.

When valve means 21 is brought into the other active position (for the opening of valve 1), oil under pressure from conduit 4 is fed through conduit 24- to the other end of jack 5, and the oil driven back from jack 5,, flows through conduit 26 to valve means 21 and then back to collector 27.

If it is desired to keep valve 1 in an intermediate position, it sufiices, once this position has been reached, to return valve means 21 into neutral position.

An indicator 23 is inserted in conduit 24 so that the operation of valve 1 can be checked up.

Such an indicator is shown on an enlarged scale on FIG. 2. The body of this indicator is constituted by a cylinder of a transparent material, of sufiicient resistance and of a capacity preferably equal to that of the corresponding hydraulic motor, such as jack 5,, the ends 31 of this cylinder being preferably constituted by metal plates advantageously connected together by rods 32.

In this cylinder, is mounted slidable a piston 33 for instance of brass or a plastic material containing two check valves 34 and 35 disposed in opposed directions and which permit of restoring equal pressures on the opposed faces of the piston.

Means may be provided to permit of ascertaining the position of piston 33. 'Such means may be constituted by making a graduation on one of the rods 32. Furthermore, advantageously, there is provided, at each end of the cylinder, a window 36, 37 illuminated with different colours and hidden by piston 33 when it is in front of one of said windows.

According to the modification illustrated by FIG. 3, check valves 34, 35 are replaced by two by-pass connections 38 and 39 controlled by a slide valve 40, capable of stopping both of them when being in intermediate position, or of placing the portions of said cylinder on 0pposite sides of said piston in communication with each other when said slide valve is moved away from its middle position in said passage. Said slide valve is subjected to the action of two springs 41 and 42.

These valve position indicators are advantageously grouped on the same board located close to the control valve means 21 above referred to.

In a general manner, while I have in the above description disclosed what I deem to be practical and eflicient embodiments of my invention, it should be noted that I do not wish to be limited thereto as there might be changes made in the arrangement, disposition and form of the parts without departing from the principle of the present invention as comprehended within the scope of the accompanying claim.

What I claim is:

In a tanker for carrying a liquid petroleum product in bulk, the combination of a distributing valve for said petroleum product, a hydraulic motor for actuating said valve, a source of power liquid under pressure, control valve means for controlling the supply of liquid to said motor thereby operating said distributing valve, two conduits extending between said source and said control valve, respectively for the feed of power liquid toward said distributing valve and the return of liquid to said source, two conduits extending between said control valve means and said hydraulic motor for the circulation of the liquid to and from said hydraulic motor respectively, said control valve means being capable of reversing the communications between said two second mentioned conduits and said two first mentioned conduits to operate said hydraulic motor at will in one direction and in the opposite one, and indicator means mounted in one of said four conduits and operative hydraulically in response to the flow of liquid in the conduit where the indicator means is mounted, said indicator means being located close to said control valve.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,099,073 Moir June 2, 1914 1,583,800 Schaub May 11, 1926 2,243,364 Trautman May 27, 1941 2,327,210 Overbeke Aug. 17, 1943 2,338,895 Boulogne Jan. 11, 1944 2,575,574 Withrow Nov. 20, 1951 2,721,575 Gier Oct. 25, 1955 2,748,898 De Carbon June 5, 1956 2,802,483 Davis Aug. 13, 1957 2,888,029 Govan May 26, 1959 2,949,130 Knight Aug. 16, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,115,781 France Jan. 16, 1956 

